Despite his efforts to lock down his new album exclusively on Tidal, Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo is finally available to stream across the other major services including Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music. Whether or not this decision was made by Kanye or his record label Def Jam may forever remain a mystery. Whatever went down behind the scenes, though, ultimately doesn’t matter; fans of Kanye’s music who simply wouldn’t succumb to subscribing to Tidal just to listen to TLOP (myself included) now have many options to hear the new music. Previously Kanye had also said that TLOP would never be put up for sale. Though a physical copy of the album still remains nonexistent, ‘Ye is selling it as a digital download on his website for $20, for those of you who prefer to own music as opposed to streaming it.
If you follow Kanye on Twitter, then you’re well aware about the “living breathing changing creative expression” that is The Life of Pablo. Since the album’s February release, ‘Ye’s been going back into the studio to update many of TLOP‘s tracks including “Wolves” which now features Sia and Vic Mensa again. At the very end of March, Def Jam told The New York Times that “a newly updated, remixed and remastered version” would be uploaded on the aforementioned streaming services. The label went on to say that “In the months to come, Kanye will release new updates, new versions and new iterations of the album.” So, if you want to capture TLOP as it plays now, it’d be wise to download the digital copy for keeps.
Now that my TLOP boycotting phase is over (that extended exclusivity window was wack!), excuse me while I plug in my headphones and bump ‘Ye’s latest collection.
